[Random-bits] America Online and OpenTV

[James Love]

This is AOL's earlier announcement that it was developing a DBS
type serivce.  Jamie


-------------------------------------
10/25/99 8:42 AM 

America Online and OpenTV Announce Plans to Develop Applications for
OpenTV
                            Platform 

Agreement Part of 'AOL Anywhere' Strategy 


America Online and OpenTV Announce Plans to Develop Applications
for OpenTV Platform 

Agreement Part of 'AOL Anywhere' Strategy 

 Dulles, VA and Mountain View, CA -- October XX, 1999 - America
Online, Inc., the  world's leading interactive services company,
and OpenTV, the worldwide leader in  interactive television
software, today announced an agreement to collaborate on the
development of AOL applications to be delivered over OpenTV
interactive television  software. AOL has also made an investment
in OpenTV. 

 Under the terms of the agreement, AOL and OpenTV will work to
bring some of AOL's  most popular communications features to the
OpenTV platform., including e-mail and instant  messaging. 

 "Our AOL Anywhere strategy is based on bringing our most popular
services and features  to different devices and platforms," said
Barry Schuler, President of AOL Interactive  Services. "We're
pleased to work with OpenTV to explore bringing some of our
communications features to their platform, enabling interactive
services over digital  broadcast video systems." 

 "With almost 99 percent of American households having one or
more televisions, it makes  the most sense to deliver the promise
of convergence through the television," said Jan
Steenkamp, OpenTV CEO. "What convergence means to most consumers
is interactive  information combined with everything they like
about their favorite TV programming, and we  think the agreement
between AOL and OpenTV will enable us to deliver key AOL
communications applications along with your favorite TV
programs." 

 About America Online 

 Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles,
Virginia, is the world's leader in  interactive services, Web
brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services.
America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services,
America Online, with more  than 18 million members, and
CompuServe, with over 2 million members; several leading
Internet brands including ICQ and Digital City, Inc.; the
Netscape Netcenter and  AOL.COM portals; and the  Netscape
Navigator and Communicator browsers. Through its  strategic
alliance with Sun Microsystems, the Company develops and offers
easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions
for companies  operating in the Net Economy 

 About OpenTV 

 OpenTV is the worldwide leader in interactive television
software for the digital set-top box  providing a complete
end-to-end solution for the development and  delivery of
interactive  services via digital satellite, cable and
terrestrial broadcast. OpenTV set-top box software  has been
shipped with or installed in more than 3.5 million digital
set-top boxes worldwide. 

 To date, OpenTV software solutions have been deployed by 13
television networks  worldwide, including British Sky
Broadcasting (BSkyB) in the United Kingdom and TPS in  France.
EchoStar's DISH Networkä is scheduled to launch interactive
services utilizing  OpenTV software in the U.S. later this year. 

 Worldwide headquarters for OpenTV is located in Mountain View,
California, with European  operations in Paris, France, and
offices in Seoul, South Korea and Beijing, China. Information
on OpenTV is available at www.opentv.com. 

 # # # 

 OpenTV is a registered trademark of OpenTV, Inc. All rights
reserved. Java and all
Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other
trademarks are the property of
their respective owners. 

 10/25/99 8:42 AM 




-- 
James Love
http://www.cptech.org
mailto:love@cptech.org
voice 1.202.387.8030